Ice hockey at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Ice hockey at the XI Olympic Winter Games
Venues	Makomanai Ice Arena Tsukisamu Dome
Medalists
Soviet Union   United States   Czechoslovakia
«1968	1976»

At the 1972 Winter Olympics held in Sapporo, Japan, one ice hockey event was held: men's ice hockey. Games were held at the Makomanai Ice Arena and at the Tsukisamu Dome.

Team USA

While the 1980 team had the celebrated "Miracle on Ice" and the 1960 US team had the "Forgotten Miracle", the 1972 team could be called the "completely overlooked miracle." The U.S. team was expected to finish 5th behind the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Finland. The Soviet and Czech teams were especially powerful as there was no distinction between amateurs and pros in communist countries; these teams were made up of seasoned professionals and were ranked 1 & 2 in the world. Valeri Kharlamov of the Soviet Union was considered one of the world's best players and experts agree he would have been a star in the NHL. The same can be said for Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak. In fact, this was basically the same Soviet Team that played a Canadian team composed of NHL All Stars in the 1972 Summit Series that Canada narrowly won, 4-3-1.

After qualifying for Group A by beating Switzerland 5-3, the U.S. lost as expected to Sweden, 5-1. Then they pulled off the upset of the tournament when they beat Czechoslovakia, 5-1. This surprising result was nearly as astonishing as the wins over the Soviets in 1960 and 1980. After losing as expected to the Soviet Union, the young Americans upset Finland. In the final games of the competition, the U.S. beat Poland while Finland beat Sweden and the Soviets beat the Czechs (in the game that decided the gold medal); those results boosted the U.S. from 4th to 2nd for a silver medal that was nearly as miraculous as the 1960 and 1980 gold medals.

Medalists

Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
Soviet Union Vladislav Tretiak Alexander Pashkov Vitaly Davydov Viktor Kuskin Alexander Ragulin Gennadiy Tsygankov Vladimir Lutchenko Valeri Vasiliev Igor Romishevsky Yevgeni Mishakov Alexander Maltsev Alexander Yakushev Vladimir Vikulov Anatoly Firsov Valeri Kharlamov Yury Blinov Boris Mikhailov Vladimir Petrov Vladimir Shadrin Yevgeni Zimin	United States Mike Curran Pete Sears Wally Olds Tom Mellor Frank Sanders Jim McElmury Charles Brown Dick McGlynn Ron Naslund Robbie Ftorek Stu Irving Kevin Ahearn Henry Boucha Craig Sarner Timothy Sheehy Keith Christiansen Mark Howe Tim Regan Bruce McIntosh Larry Bader	Czechoslovakia Vladimír Dzurilla Jiří Holeček Vladimír Bednář Rudolf Tajcnár Oldřich Machač František Pospíšil Josef Horešovský Karel Vohralík Václav Nedomanský Jiří Holík Jaroslav Holík Jiří Kochta Eduard Novák Richard Farda Josef Černý Vladimír Martinec Ivan Hlinka Bohuslav Šťastný

First round

Winners (in bold) as well as the gold medalist at the previous Olympics (USSR) qualify for the Group A to play for 1st-6th places. Other teams played in Group B for 7th-11th places.

• February 3
  • Japan 2-8 Czechoslovakia
  • Sweden 8-1 Yugoslavia

• February 4
  • USA 5-3 Switzerland
  • Poland 4-0 West Germany
  • Finland 13-1 Norway

Final round

First place team wins gold, second silver and third bronze.

Rank	Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
1	Soviet Union	5	4	0	1	33	13	9
2	United States	5	3	2	0	18	15	6
3	Czechoslovakia	5	3	2	0	26	13	6
4	Sweden	5	2	2	1	17	13	5
5	Finland	5	2	3	0	14	24	4
6	Poland	5	0	5	0	9	39	0

• February 5
  • Sweden 5-1 USA
  • Czechoslovakia 14-1 Poland
  • USSR 9-3 Finland

• February 7
  • USSR 3-3 Sweden
  • USA 5-1 Czechoslovakia
  • Finland 5-1 Poland

• February 8
  • Czechoslovakia 7-1 Finland

• February 9
  • Sweden 5-3 Poland
  • USSR 7-2 USA

• February 10
  • USSR 9-3 Poland
  • Czechoslovakia 2-1 Sweden
  • USA 4-1 Finland

• February 12
  • USA 6-1 Poland

• February 13
  • Finland 4-3 Sweden
  • USSR 5-2 Czechoslovakia

Consolation Round

Teams, which lost their games in the qualification round, played in this group.

Rank	Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
7	West Germany	4	3	1	0	22	10	6
8	Norway	4	3	1	0	16	14	6
9	Japan	4	2	1	1	17	16	5
10	Switzerland	4	0	2	2	9	16	2
11	Yugoslavia	4	0	3	1	9	17	1

• February 6
  • Norway 5-2 Yugoslavia
  • West Germany 5-0 Switzerland

• February 7
  • Japan 3-3 Switzerland
  • West Germany 6-2 Yugoslavia

• February 9
  • Japan 3-2 Yugoslavia
  • West Germany 5-1 Norway

• February 10
  • Japan 4-5 Norway
  • Switzerland 3-3 Yugoslavia

• February 12
  • Japan 7-6 West Germany
  • Norway 5-3 Switzerland

Leading scorers

Player	GP	G	A	Pts
Valeri Kharlamov ()	5	9	6	15
Václav Nedomanský ()	5	6	3	9
Vladimir Vikulov ()	5	5	4	9
Craig Sarner ()	5	4	5	9
Aleksandr Maltsev ()	5	4	3	7
Kevin Ahearn ()	5	4	3	7
Anatoli Firsov ()	5	2	5	7
Yuri Blinov ()	5	3	3	6
Jiří Kochta ()	5	3	3	6
Richard Farda ()	5	1	5	6

Final ranking

1. Soviet Union
2. United States
3. Czechoslovakia
4. Sweden
5. Finland
6. Poland
7. West Germany
8. Norway
9. Japan
10. Switzerland
11. Yugoslavia

References

• Jeux Olympiques 1972